We’ve known this for a while — since 2006, actually — but people keep perpetuating bad facts. Isn’t it time to put these myths to an end? Stop sitting up straight! The proper angle is somewhere between 120 and 135 degrees, which looks like this:

Other important sitting posture tips:

Lumbar support. The lower back area of the spine naturally has a slight inward curve. A chair with lumbar support helps maintain this natural curve and prevents unnecessary stress.

Support your feet. Ideally, your feet should rest flat on the floor, but if your legs aren’t long enough, try resting your feet flat on a footstool. This also reduces stress on your lower back.

No armrests. With the proper seat height, your elbows should rest by your sides at a 90-degree angle. Armrests aren’t necessary. Not only do they collide with desks (and encourage bad seat height) but leaning on armrests is bad for your shoulders and spine.

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JustaRottenGirl

October 17, 2018 at 11:25 pm

Actually no...being told to sit up straight isn't just for looks (although "straight" is a misnomer)- constantly hunching over and pulling your head towards a screen past your chest is actually quite bad for your back. It pulls the spine out of it's natural resting position and you end up with "slouched/rounded" shoulders after extensively sitting improperly (and later on, back problems).

To test this stand up comfortably with your hands at your side and look in a mirror at a side-view. If your palms are faced towards the back of you and the thumbs point towards each other then you have rounded shoulders. This is easily noted for girls as our bra straps tend to slide off if we have rounded shoulders.

If your standing up in the natural position you can actually see that your palms will instead face the sides of you and the thumbs will be pointing forward.

Proper poster denotes sitting up at attention but not "straight"- if you sit perfectly straight it adds tension to your back and makes it hard to breathe. You should also rest your back on something as well and make sure your screen is far enough away, but not so far that you have to pull your head forward. Arms should be in front of you comfortably resting on the table/sides of the laptop next to the trackpad.

Actually Eliza, it does work. If you try it carefully, you can find a sweet spot where everything feels natural (unlike sitting up straight, which is where I've been going wrong for years). It's probably the arm-wrist straight line thing which is puzzling; if you sit at a conventional keyboard you would think that your arms are straight, in line with your wrists, but actually this isn't the case. Your arms slant inwards from your body to the keyboard and so, if the keyboard is straight, you have to turn your wrists out slightly to accommodate the keys. With a (genuinely) ergonomic keyboard your hands sort of zoom in to the keyboard from either side as if they were going to meet each other, and so stay in line with the inward (towards the centre of the body) direction of your forearms.

If you sit at a table or desk (without a keyboard in front of you), shut your eyes and relax your shoulders with your arms by your sides, then just lift your hands and almost flop them onto the table in front of you - that is just put them down in a relaxed fashion - you will see that they are curved slightly inward and near each other, not straight and in line with your shoulders, like traditional robot arms. That's your natural, and so best, position.

I'm lucky because I have a Herman Miller Aeron chair and a Truly Ergonomic keyboard on a pull-out shelf from my desk, so I can achieve the position described above without problems, and it definitely is the business. You do need a clear screen, however, because obviously your eyes are then some distance away from your monitor (but then that's no bad thing either), but screens and screen displays are easily adjusted.

This isn't really the place for pictures from commenters, is it? If you Google 'Herman Miller Aeron chair', 'Truly Ergonomic Keyboard' and 'best position at desk relaxed not upright' you will see everything I've mentioned, and this page has a good diagram of the right position of hands on a keyboard (although it's incorrect as to sitting posture for typing): http://www.rsipain.com/equipment.php. Hope that helps!